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The Power of Email Marketing

Getting an Email List

Email marketing really only works if you have an email list. Makes sense, right? So how do you go about getting a list? Your first thought might be to pay someone for one. The problem with that is that you’ll most likely have no idea where the emails came from and how they were collected. The safer approach is to collect email addresses yourself through events, a form on your website, or handing out promotional materials, such as postcards or business cards.

Segmenting Your List:

So you’ve got your business up and running and have collected a list of loyal customers that are eager to hear what you’ve got in store for them next. One of the first things that you’ll need to do is segment your list in a way that makes sense for your business. You can manually segment your list, or let your subscribers put themselves into groups when they sign up. Some common ways to segment marketing lists are by:

Geographic location

Persona

Behavior

Content interests

Types of Email Campaigns

There are many types of different email campaigns to consider. You’ll probably want to start small and just choose a few to start out. If those are working well, you can decide if you want to implement more. Here are a few ideas from FulcrumTech of different types of email campaigns.

Designing Your Email

For mass emailing campaigns, using a system that is made for designing and sending emails might be your easiest route. MailChimp is probably the most well known, however there are several alternatives to MailChimp that offer similar features. Keep in mind that the bigger your list and campaign intentions, the more expensive these systems are going to cost you.

Writing

Most people, regardless of whether or not they fall into your target demographic, are motivated by incentives, newsworthy information, and the fear of missing out (FOMO). You can use this knowledge to create more compelling copy and subject lines for your emails. Choose words that automatically attract the eye and will draw people in. Also remember that personalization is key. The more you can personalize your email message, the better it will be received by your target audience. Here are some great examples of personalized email campaigns that worked!

Testing

The next step in the email marketing process would be to test. You can do this in a number of ways. You can test out different designs, different words, or even different colors. Start out by making a hypothesis and following through with it. Pick only one thing to change per test. For example, you might send half of your list an email with a blue button and the other half an email with a red button. You can analyze the click through rates after your email has been sent to determine which color to continue to use for your audience.

How often you send out emails to your audience depends on the type of campaign that you’re using. For example, welcoming someone with an email after they’ve signed up to receive your monthly newsletter, would typically involve only one email. If you send five similar emails welcoming your new customer, they’ll more than likely unsubscribe from your list. You can test out the best days and time to send to your audience by using analytics.

Following the Laws

One very important thing to remember when sending out mass email campaigns is to have a way for people to easily opt-out of receiving your emails. In 2003, the Federal Communications Commission passed the CAN-SPAM Act, to help stop the spread of spam. You can read more about the CAN-SPAM Act here.